


A Good Sentinel

by Zamalda



Series: Hurts in Hindsight [6]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF, youtube - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Dream Smp, Dream Team SMP Angst (Video Blogging RPF), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Gen, Men Crying, Not Beta Read, Panic Attacks, Stockholm Syndrome, dream smp au, smp au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:28:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28846815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zamalda/pseuds/Zamalda
Summary: Techno needed Tommy to get his head in the game. They had made a pact, and Techno planned to make good on the deal. If Tommy wanted to be in his depressive funk, then Techno wouldn’t help him. Tommy could fight for his own discs.Techno’s whole body went rigid when he saw movement. He gripped Toothpick tightly in both hands. He wished now more than ever that he had his armour and weapons. He didn’t know if he could take Dream-Two figures emerged from the trees, a slightly transparent Ghostbur with Ranboo in tow.
Series: Hurts in Hindsight [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2096145
Comments: 6
Kudos: 123





	A Good Sentinel

**Author's Note:**

> According to AO3 statistics, over 80% of readers don't leave a kudos, and even more don't comment. If you could do one of those, it lets me know that you want to see more of my work. It's free, and you can always take it back later. Please enjoy my sad interpretation of the Dream SMP.
> 
> This is part six to a series, and the story deviates from cannon, so you may want to read them in order.

Technoblade sat on the front steps of his house, staring far off at the trees on the mountain. He had finished chopping the rest of the wood in order to keep the fire going longer. He could feel the heat in the house seeping out under the door. He hoped if it was pooling outside, some was making its way down to the basement. Techno didn’t know if he could stand the house any hotter than it was now. As the heat rose, his room started to boil. He hardly slept the night before, between being too hot, and listening for any sign of life from the lowest level of the house. 

In the past day, Tommy hadn’t left his room. Techno had periodically checked the door of his escape tunnel, just to see if it had been disturbed. So far, everything looked the same as it had when Tommy had retreated downstairs the day before. 

Techno sighed. He pulled out his journal and flipped to the to-do list. Tommy and he had gone to the nether a few days prior, but they had yet to craft anything out of the netherite they’d found. If he had any hope of having Tommy help him blow up L’Manburg, he would need to stay on schedule. 

He stood and stretched. He grabbed the wood for the fire and walked back into the house. He was hit in the face by the heat that had infested his home. It almost felt harder to pull in breaths with the thick, swampy air. Techno swallowed his complaints and pulled out the netherite from his chest. He had enough to make a sword, and possibly a pickaxe. He would have to see after finishing the sword. 

Technoblade was sweating like, well, like a pig by the time he had finished the sword. He leaned it against his workbench and sighed. He smoothed his hair down with his right hand. Two days ago he would have been happy to have just a little peace and quiet, but now he missed the constant buzz of chatter. 

He needed to step outside. 

He reveled in the cold, as it chilled the sheen of sweat that had formed on his skin. He still had so much to do, but he couldn’t go anywhere without the fear that Dream would come back for Tommy, or even worse, Tommy would go looking for Dream. A good sentinel never left their post.

_”Dream?” Techno did his best to sound uninterested as he opened the door to reveal the bright green sweatshirt clad man._

_“Hey, Techno,” Dream smiled. He reached behind his head and untied the string keeping his mask in place and rested the mask in his hand._

_Technoblade stepped to the side as Dream motioned asking if he could come inside._

_“To what do I owe this pleasure?”_

_“I…” Techno watched as Dream meticulously scanned the room, his eyes faltered over the cupboard that Tommy was crammed into, then over to the unlit fireplace. “You cold?”_

_“I live in the middle of a snowy mountain, cold is kind of a given,” Techno took the time that Dream had his back turned to eye the cupboard. A single potion particle floated up. Shit._

_Dream hummed a laugh. “True.”_

_Dream took a step towards Techno. He took a pointed look at the fireplace. He had a smirk on his face that the piglin did not return. As soon as the smirk had been noticed, it disappeared._

Techno shook his head. He needed to do something. He needed Tommy to get out of this funk he had fallen into. There weren’t any books written for this situation. No one could help him. Phil could- if he wasn’t on house arrest-

Techno took a deep breath and focused his eyes on the horizon. He scanned for movement. His shoulders had been tense ever since Dream had left. He was convinced if he continued scanning, making sure Dream wasn’t there, that that tension would be released and he could go back to normal. 

Techno needed Tommy to get his head in the game. They had made a pact, and Techno planned to make good on the deal. If Tommy wanted to be in his depressive funk, then Techno wouldn’t help him. Tommy could fight for his own discs. 

Techno’s whole body went rigid when he saw movement. He gripped Toothpick tightly in both hands. He wished now more than ever that he had his armour and weapons. He didn’t know if he could take Dream-

Two figures emerged from the trees, a slightly transparent Ghostbur with Ranboo in tow. 

Ranboo who had switched sides, Ranboo who had joined L’Manburg in his execution, Ranboo who had chosen his _side_. 

Techno did not lower Toothpick as the men approached. His knuckles were white from more than just the cold. 

“Technoblade!” Ghostbur greeted with a smile on his face, his eyes distant as they always were since-

“Hi, Ghostbur,” Techno gritted out as he stared at Ranboo. His eyes were locked with the split colored man’s red and green ones. “Ranboo. Here to take me back to your leader again?”

“Technoblade, I-”

“You have some things of mine, I believe,” Techno gazed at the sharp point of Toothpick. 

_He looked down as he pulled Toothpick from Quackity’s head. A sickening squelch filled the sewers._

For a split second, Techno wondered what noise Toothpick would make when being dislodged from Ranboo’s head. He wondered if it would sound the same as an enderman, or something else. 

Ranboo looked visibly shaken. Ghostbur watched silently.

“I-I don’t have any of your things on me, Techno-”

“If you want to keep both of those eyes in your head, I think you will come up with them somehow,” Techno snarled. He tightened his grip on Toothpick. 

“I put them in my- in my enderchest!”

“Lucky for your eyes, I have one inside.”

Techno opened the door to his home, the adrenaline coursing through him made him barely notice the temperature difference. 

“Now, Ranboo, should you have my items on you, and you attempt to slip them in the enderchest for leverage, note that you will be crawling back to L’Manburg with two less limbs than you entered this cottage with.”

“I only have your armour,” Ranboo promised. “We split your things among ourselves so that- so that you couldn’t threaten just one of us to get it back.”

Technoblade watched closely as Ranboo dug into the enderchest. He loosened his grip on Toothpick when he saw Ranboo pull out the full set of Techno’s enchanted netherite armour. He stripped out of his old armour right in the middle of the room as he clad himself in the armour he had worked so meticulously on to make sure everything was perfect. 

Once in the full set, he felt more like himself than he had since the execution. 

“Now this is a step in the right direction,” Technoblade let Toothpick hang loosely in the grip of his right hand. He turned to Ghostbur, who had been surprisingly silent the entire time. “Why did the two of you come here, anyways?”

“Is Tommy here?” Ghostbur asked, suddenly in front of the pink haired male. 

“Who’s asking?” Technoblade asked, ready to fight if Ghostbur was with Dream. 

“I just- I haven’t seen him in a while,” Ghostbur drifted off for a moment, staring in the distance, past Techno’s shoulder. “I told him I would deliver the invites to his party- then Dream said he would do it, and he left me in the snow. Why would he do that, Techno?”

“I think we are all starting to realize that Dream isn’t the stand up guy he pretends to be, Ghostbur,” Techno sighed. Then he realized. Ghostbur and Tommy were friends. Ghostbur spent the most time with Tommy outside of Dream while he was in exile. If anyone knew how to get Tommy back to his old self, it would be him. “But Tommy is here, and I think you should go talk to him.”

“Oh! Where is he?” Ghostbur smiled, looking around slowly. 

“He’s downstairs,” Techno pointed down the ladder. “I think he’d like to see you.”

“I hope so, I’d like to see him!”

Ghostbur descended the ladder, leaving Ranboo and Techno alone. 

“I’m here as a sign of peace you know.”

“You have a real funny definition of peace,” Technoblade quirked an eyebrow up at the duel colored man. “Technoblade never dies, but you certainly tried your best.”

“Techno-”

“Uh, guys,” Ghostbur popped his head back into the room. “Tommy left down his little tunnel and told me not to follow him.”

“And you listened?” Techno demanded as he opened the door to the outside. He rushed over to where he knew the trap door was. He could cut Tommy off before he had the chance to run. 

The snow above the door concealing the hole was untouched. 

Techno looked behind him and saw Ranboo and Ghostbur were trailing fairly far behind. The snow started to move, and the door flipped open. 

Tommy’s hair was a mess, and he had taken off his armour, likely not wanting to sleep or wallow in his self pity or whatever it was he was doing in it. He had bags under his eyes, just as noticeable as when Techno had found him in the snow right after his execution. He looked pissed. 

“ _You_ ,” Tommy growled as he crawled out of the hole. He brushed the snow off of his pants when he stood. Techno noticed he was shivering. “You brought him here-”

“He actually just showed up-”

“He _didn’t_ show up! No one did.”

Techno’s head ached, but the voices were quiet. For once, they didn’t need to shout at him for him to know what they wanted. 

“Tommy-”

“I asked him to do one simple thing- I asked him to invite everyone over,” Tommy was shaking, and Techno didn’t think it was due to the cold. “I trusted him- and when the day came- no one- no one but _Dream_ , who you sent away, showed up!”

“It was just a-”

“Don’t say that!” Tommy was almost hyperventilating. “Don’t say it was a stupid party! That was the day-” Tommy swallowed and his voice broke. “That was the day I went to the nether, and I-”

“Tommy,” Ghostbur had arrived at the scene. “Why did you run away?”

“Go away,” Tommy bit out. “I don’t want to see you. Dream told me what you did, or what you _didn’t_ do.”

“What are you talking about?” Ghostbur asked as he tilted his head in genuine curiosity. “I was on my way to deliver the invitations, when Dream said he would help me, but he took me out to a very snowy terrain, and you know that I don’t do well in-”

“Why would Dream do that?” Tommy demanded. “You are just trying to blame Dream, but I know him better than anyone, and I know he would never do that!”

Techno’s fingertips twitched. He had no doubt Tommy knew Dream better than anyone. 

“He did. He took the rest of the invitations from me and said he would deliver the rest.”

“I never got one at all,” Ranboo said from behind Ghostbur. “And Ghostbur was telling me about how he had been lost the whole way over here. I don’t think he’s making it up.”

Techno watched as hurt and anger battled across Tommy’s face. 

“Dream and I were- are- _are_ friends,” Tommy stated. “He said so himself, he wouldn’t- he didn’t’ even know I was there and he said we were friends, so- why- he wouldn’t do that to me, W-Ghostbur.”

“Tommy-” Techno stepped in, putting his hand on the younger boy’s shoulder. “I think Dream did know.”

“What-? No. He didn’t. He would have said something. He was so worried- he would have been happy or-or-or said something, you heard him, he thought I had- that I had died!”

Ghostbur looked like he was going to add something, but Tommy kept going. 

“Dream is my _friend_ and Dream is worried about me right now!” Tommy’s shoulders were shaking. “He’s probably blaming himself for me disappearing and I need to go to him to tell him that I am okay! He’s all that I have, and I can’t let him hate me!”

Tommy let out a quiet sob. Techno’s body felt heavy. The voices stayed quiet. Techno looked at Ghostbur and Ranboo. Surely the two of them could see-

“Tommy,” Ghostbur was the only one who dared to speak. “I would have come to the beach party if I wasn’t lost in the snow.”

“Me too, if I had known it was happening,” Ranboo offered after another beat of silence. 

Technoblade pulled his hand back quickly as Tommy collapsed in the snow. None of them moved as Tommy beat the ground with his fists, much like he had to Techno’s chest the day before. 

Techno wished the voices would come back. He wanted them to fuel a fire in him, to make him want to hunt down Dream, to make him want violence, _to tell him what to do_. He wished they would come back, because they would drown out the blood-curdling screams coming from Tommy’s soul. 

Techno took a stumbling step backwards as Ghostbur kneeled next to Tommy, not touching him, but just kneeling in front of him, so that Tommy would know that he was there. Techno could hear the faintest sizzle as Ghostbur shifted in the snow. Ranboo sat cross-legged on the ground, moving no closer, but acting as if he was interacting with a wounded animal, which, in a way, he was. 

Technoblade could work with that- but no he couldn’t. He had never taken care of something. If he saw a hurt animal, he normally took advantage of the opportunity and made it his dinner. Phil would know how to handle this. Phil would be so much better at this. Phil would be able to take one look at Tommy and manage to make Tommy happy- truly happy- in one conversation. 

Techno felt his face pull into a deep frown.

After a few more moments, Tommy slumped into the snow, face covered by his arms, exposed to the snow. He was still shaking, but he was no longer screaming. 

“Dream is my _friend_ ,” Tommy sobbed. “Why would he do that- why would he hurt me- we are _friends_.”

“I don’t know, Tommy,” Ghostbur muttered. Techno noticed that for the first time, Ghostbur’s eyes were focused on Tommy, they didn’t stare through him or to the side. A chill ran down Techno’s spine that wasn’t from the cold. “Your fatal flaw has always been caring too much.”

“Dream cares about me- he does!” Tommy brought his face up to glare at Ghostbur. 

“I don’t doubt that,” Ghostbur said, eyes still focused. “But I think you care about Dream in a much different way than he cares about you.”

Techno watched Tommy as Ghostbur said what he was always too scared to. Techno saw Tommy as something that could break with a single misstep, but Ghostbur was giving Tommy the truth, something no one had given him since his exile started. Not even Technoblade had given Tommy the complete truth. Thinking about his plans to destroy L’Manburg caused his stomach to tighten.

“I tried to be a good friend-” Tommy cut himself off with a sob. He dropped his head back into his arms. Ghostbur still didn’t reach out to touch Tommy. Ranboo watched on silently. It became hard to tell what was shaking from the sobs versus the cold. “I did my best- why couldn’t he see that?”

Techno brought his fingers up to undo the clasp on his cape. It was all he could do. He pulled the cape off of himself, and laid it on Tommy’s shoulders. Tommy reached up and pulled the cape tight around his shaking frame. 

“What did I- what did I do?” Tommy quietly croaked. “I don’t- nothing makes sense- they _all_ used me- none of them care- Dream he- he- he was the only one who cared- but- but-”

“It’s okay, Tommy,” Ghostbur mumbled as he finally reached forward and rubbed the boy’s back. Ghostbur’s eyes hadn’t left Tommy. “Maybe… maybe it was never meant to be.” Ghostbur looked up then, his eyes unfocused as they should be. “But I can be your friend- I can let you meet Friend! Friend is my sheep- he’s blue!”

Ranboo tapped the ghost on the shoulder and silently shook his head. Ghostbur’s face fell, but he continued to gently rub Tommy’s back. 

Techno felt the urge to speak, to say _something_ to make this situation better, but the words died on his tongue. Tommy wouldn’t want to hear what he had to say. They weren’t close. Wilbur and Tommy had always been close--closer than Techno had ever been with any of them, with _anyone_ \--and it seemed that even in death, Wilbur knew Tommy better than anyone ever would. 

_Except Dream._

Technoblade curled his fist. Dream had cheated, he had manipulated Tommy. The only things Dream knew about the young british boy was how to trigger him, to flare up his anger and tear him down. Dream didn’t know Tommy. Dream owned Tommy. Techno’s blood boiled, keeping him warm from the freezing temperatures of the tundra. 

It took Techno a moment to realize that Tommy was done shaking, and that he had sat up, red cape still pulled around his shoulders. They locked eyes. 

“Blade,” Tommy’s voice cracked, but it was just as flat and steeled as his eyes, “let’s fuck something up.”

Relief washed over Techno. _This he could do._

“Some minor terrorism, perhaps?” Techno smirked, offering his hand out to Tommy to help him stand. 

“And maybe plans for more.”

“Now you’re speaking the universal language, Tommy.”

_BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD_

**Author's Note:**

> Pls comment and let me know what you guys think! you can come visit me on Tumblr @it-zamalda if you would like to say hi! When I post these on Tumblr, I use art for the headers, if any of you want to draw any of the scenes and send them to me or tag them with #hurts in hindsight on Tumblr..... but only if you want :)


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